The answer, as it was, was plenty. Ale had spent the last half an hour walking around, mapping and checking her area of activities. So far she had found three giant rats, one mutant rat, and one normal rat.
The normal rat was already being digested in the stomach of the giant rat, that had been interesting, at the begining she had thought the giant rat had been pregnant, and in turn, was happy that Alexa wasn't paying attention to the outside since she was too busy taking a bath with Alexandra at the moment.
What was the point of taking a bath within the mindscape? And more importantly, why take one with Alexandra? Ale was not sure, but she totally didn't want to do the same, at all. Why would anyone want to do that? It was weird, bathing was something to be done privately.
Yes, she wasn't jelly about how much fun Alexa seemed to be having. And no, she wasn't going to relive the memory files Alexa was storing, no sir.
Dang it….
Anyway, Ale continued moving from place to place, so far, she had found some useful hideouts, but in most of those situations, "This place is being restricted, please exit and move to another area at least for the next forty-eight hours." It was always the same, Ale saying these words while showing the emblem of [Haephestus' Forge] and having the people who lived in the sewers move away.
That had been one interesting finding, the first time she had thought that one of the rats had triggered and turned into a human rat, but as it was, it seemed some people liked to live in the sewer system, mostly people with weird Core powers or those that didn't have an stable job.
As no one seemed to bother them, she had made a call to find out what the right way to deal with these people was, and the answer had been her rehearsed answer: tell them to scram and that they could return later. Someone would track them and check later if they had started spreading Meli-Meli's Core Power, she wasn't sure how that worked, but that was above her pay grade. That is to say, it wasn't something for her to worry about.
She hadn't been required to move near Sam's area of influence either.
They were leaving a wide berth to that area, neither minions, villains, or Heroes seemed to want to move there.
Perhaps it was because of that that Ale had been surprised by finding people lived down here, she had heard a few people say that people lived down here, but she had never seen anything like that.
"Rhapsody reporting, found the dwelling of another, no evidence of anyone being here recently, marking the stop and leaving a note," But here? In this area? She had found plenty of dwelling spots.
Not all of them were inhabited, a few were empty, and while not all showed the same evidence of being abandoned, those that didn't all had the same feel.
A weird mana in the area that seemed to want to stick to the walls, Ale of course wasn't affected by it, since the mana was purified by the multiple Core's she had built around her body for those reasons, from those that Main Core had made before he left to those that they made manually.
All to ensure no information blindsided them, now used to ensure nothing could get past and infect their Consciousness Stream, it was hilarious in a way, the interference that actually mattered wasn't something they could prevent. But this? This was almost laughably easy to block.
Not that it mattered, it was what it was.
Instead of worrying about that, Ale focused on what she could affect.
"Rhapsody, we have found evidence of a gathering in the territory adjacent to yours. Please circle back and ensure no ambush is being set up." And while moving to her route, the message came.
A few like those had been coming lately, mostly updates in how it was going with the other teams, Ale didn't mind them, she didn't see the reason why she needed to know and ahd asked as much, the answer was that people got jumpy if they didn't know how the other people were doing. Or if they were even working.
Pointless worry. Ale only needed to do her job and believe everyone could pull their weight.
Nonetheless, she liked having live updates about everyone else, and she was keeping those updates in her personal map; the one who handled the adjacent territory was one of the sidekicks, an apprentice or something. She hadn't gotten a clear view of them, but they didn't seem to be that big.
Apparently the sidekick accepted younger trainees than the Minions did.
It was some kind of understanding that the younger sidekicks wouldn't be harmed, anyone that did so would be ganged up by the Heroes in masse, while that wasn't something that could be promised for the villains.
More so since Villains not only fought Heroes, but also Villains. And while it was easy to gang up on a Hero, they had more chances to run away, a Minion who did so would get shot in the back. Also people had problems with minors working for Villains.
Which Ale still couldn't understand, it was easier to get hurt as a sidekick than as a minion. As a minion if she didn't want to fight she only needed to surrender, which wasn't an option for the sidekicks, they were expected to entertain or distract till the Hero arrived.
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She as a minion didn't need to do that, all she needed to do was to make sure her job was done, if her job was to stall, then sure, she would need to fight to achieve that, but if her job was to install something, they didn't care if she fought or not, so long she installed the thing.
Granted, Ale would probably fight more often than not, if not because it was easier, it would be because she could get more [Blueprints] that way, but not all minions needed to do that. [Big Sister] would probably just fly over the place and drop the thing. While [Golem] would straight up walk and drop the thing in place, then walk away. No one could stop him, so why bother and find a fight?
But again, that was also besides the point, different minions, different core powers. Now…
"Circling back, do I need to provide support?" Ale asked while marking where she had gone up to on her map, both the personal and the shared one. Whoever was manning comms would know where Ale had made up to and the notes were detailed. If they wanted someone else to take up her job it would be easy.
"Let me check up with the Hero Side." The person manning the communication said, Ale started walking slowly in the direction that they had asked her, she would take her time, she didn't want to arrive before knowing if she would nee to provide support.
That would change her approach, if support was needed, she would need to set up her armor and body for a fight that required a softer approach.
If they didn't want her to provide support however…well, then she could prepare her normal build and just wing it, she would fight whoever came her way and if some collateral damage came…well, that was just life wasn't it?
Ale hoped it would come like that to be honest.
"IT isn't required, but SuperForce stated that if you can do it, to provide support. They have high hopes for Body and Soul." The communications minions said, "Those are the code names of the Sidekicks that asked for help."
Body and Soul? Those were….weird names.
Ale got a weird feeling about those names, but…surely it couldn't be right? How probable was it? Surely someone else had powers similar to theirs and, in turn, had taken those code names.
"Roger that, will [Superforce] be in the vicinity?" Ale asked changing her setup, she added a couple of paralyzing agents to the base of her [Arm-mament], just in case she needed to use them like that, she made sure it was a neurotoxin agent that affected straight all functions, just in case Body was who she thought it was.
It would probably not work long, but she only needed it to work for enough time for her next movement anyway.
"Not as far as we can tell, but he is fast so anything within this area can be considered near to him anyway." The communication minion said, "He left a message in case you asked about that. 'I'll look over you too, and if you want to change sides I can vouch for you. Vulcanus will not mind, he is an old friend.' This was reviewed by Vulcanus himself and he confirms that he is an old friend of SuperForce…And honestly… He is probably on the better side, they stuck Chrysalis to him for that reason."
"Are you advising me to change sides?" Ale asked dumbfounded, "I will not change sides either way."
"I am just saying, if you want to change sides, sticking to SuperForce is among the best things you can do. Not all Heroes are like Chrysalis." The communications minions said, then after a brief pause, he continued, "I don't know why you decided to be a minion, but they also provide help to underage Core Users in the Hero side, and you will not have a track of being a criminal in your file…"
That was…weird. So far, no one had put this much effort into this; most just shrugged and carried on. Why was this one this invested in this?
"What's to you if I am or not a Minion?" Ale asked confused, "Why would you care?"
"...I also have a daughter, I wouldn't want her to be part of this life…So seeing you…A twelve-year-old shouldn't be in this life; you should be playing at home." The communication minion said, "...Yes sir…No sir… I'm sorry, Minion Rhapsody, please don't clog the communication network and keep it all professional."
Ale had managed to hear some words from behind, perhaps someone had noticed their conversation wasn't professional?
"Roger that," Ale answered and after thinking for a second she added, "What data do you have on the Sidekicks Body and Soul? Anything useful so I know who I am going to support?"
"Sending a question to the Hero Side, I doubt much will come from it, they are protector of their young," The communication Minion said, in what Ale percieved a bit of a mocking tone, "They have answered, body has a low end shifting Core Power, they refused to elaborate buy promised us he wouldn't be affected by MS2."
That…checked to what Ale had suspected, only the degree of power was wrong. If this was indeed Alan Harmonia, his power was on the higher end, not on the lower end. Was this really someone else?
"Soul has an…Aura type of Core Power? They aren't specific on this and only provided examples, she seems to be able to boost and buff? Something about keeping the interference of other Mind Core Type Powers at bay?" The Communication minions said and then he covered his mic and asked a few things without letting Ale listen, "Okay, we got confirmation. It is not a Mind Core Type Power, your file has a note that says you can perceive the tampering with Mind Cores, is this true?"
Ale thought for a second, she had felt Meli-Meli when she dumped all that emotional feedback…
"I can confirm that I was able to detect Meli-Meli's power before yes…Also I have been able to detect the effect of Cerberus' Power and the theater master." Ale answered confused, "Why is this relevant?"
"I need you to confirm these statements, if you detect any tampering from Soul, I need you to report it immediately and evacuate. We have not provided them with this part of your Core Power. So do not elaborate on why you are leaving the area in case of need." The communication minion said, "And I can't say this enough, if you suspect Soul has a Mind Core Type Power, report and run. Do not engage."
"...Noted." Ale said, "What if I can [Terminate] her?"
"...Do not." The communication minion said, "Even if she does have a Mind Type Core Power, if she has affected them, they will still hunt you, and worst case scenario, if she has and she hasn't affected them. They will double down and hunt you."
…That was troubling.
"Noted," Ale said, sighing. There was her plan to eliminate Alan Harmonia and Gloria Blackthorn, using the excuse that she didn't know they were them. She would need to find a chance to do so outside job then, and when Alexa wasn't paying attention, that one last bit was the most important. Perhaps she would need to start fostering a new identity to do the deed?
But she would need to fake a new type of Core Power…well, she could always stick a flamethrower to one of her hands and pretend to be a Fire Core Power, how hard could it be?
If not she could pretend to be a muscle core power or a speedster, if she moved around skipping the orders from her Brain, then she could move very fast, perhaps fast enough to emulate the speedster core powers, she would only need to either program her actions in advance or set up an AI Core to move her.
But then again, that wouldn't be that hard.
"Okay, are you ready to engage?" The communication minion asked as Ale started moving into the new territory.
"Yes," Ale answered, she had started mapping the new territory, going to the spot she had been asked, as she moved she found evidence of giant rats remains here and there, weirdly enough, most of the remmanents of the biomass was all stuck in the hideouts that the people living in the sewers would use.
A weird aspect of it, as far as she was aware, the people that lived underground went out of their way to pick spots that the giant rats couldn't or wouldn't use, so the fact that she was finding so much biomass stuck in these spots meant something.
The sidekicks were sticking the biomass there for a reason, Ale couldn't for the love of all that was sacred find out why. It was meaningless, it didn't give them any advantage whatsoever, and as far as she was aware, the humans rarely used or employed biomass like she did; most used other derived meat as biomass. Mostly from a very few specific types of animals. That is to say, they had weird fixations about what animals to use.
So far the only ones that didn't seem to have these qualms were people who lived under the city, in the sewers, or people who lived outside the city walls…If she was to make a guess about why they were doing this…
It was either because whoever Body & Soul were, they didn't want someone to see them disposing of the bodies, that meant that how they did so made their powers recognizable…or it was in poor taste, how could it be in poor taste?
Probably because it was one of the Core Powers that were feared or forbidden, that meant…that meant that Ale was probably soon to encounter someone whose power was forbidden, and that limited who she could find. And right now she knew of a few ones that qualified for those forbidden powers.
That is to say, she may soon encounter other test subjects…She did see evidence of someone selling P-series subjects in an auction not that long ago.
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